At a guess I would say that bus is not going to sell cheap. I figure the sale price to be closer to $10K than to $5K.
Personally, I would stay away from it.
That vintage with that HP rating tells me it has either the VT365 or the MaxxForce7. Regardless of what IHC/Navistar/IC called the engine, it was basically the same 6.0L/6.4L/6.7L headache Ford had.
What causes the problems are heat related and emissions control related.
In order for the emissions controls to work as designed the engine has to get hot and stay hot for varying periods of time in order for the EGR to burn off all of the unburnt hydrocarbons. If you don't burn up those hydrocarbons the hydrocarbons will start to build up until it causes the engine major problems. Running stop and go in an urban/suburban setting where a long sustained run might be 5 minutes and an hour of run time before the engine is shut off is about the absolute worst thing you can do to those engines.
That is about the smallest IC CE bus IC used to make. With the demise of the IC BE bus model they have been making IC CE buses as short as four windows. I would say rarely since a Collins or Mini-Bird would cost more like $50K-$60K out the door and an IC CE bus of the same capacity would cost an additional $25K-$40K depending on options chosen.
By the way, the seating capacity would be 20 adults with 2 people in each seat. If it were school children the capacity would be 30 students.
For some reason, even though it is spe'c'ed for adult transport, it doesn't appear as if it has the 12" windows but the 9" windows with an inside height of only 72"-74".
That vintage means that everything in the bus is computer controlled with a multiplexed wiring systems. As new as that bus is with as few miles, relatively speaking, I would wonder what was wrong with the bus and why was the owner getting rid of it. The possibility that it is a garage queen that has run out all original and subsequent extended warranties is a real possibility.
In the same auction there is another bus that is 10-years older that is just about the same size. It will most likely sell for under $2K and it would still be a pretty good deal at twice that price as long as the engine starts and doesn't smoke a lot.
The following week in the Las Vegas sale there are a couple of buses that look to be about the same size, both will sell for under $5K, and both would be pretty good buses as long as both started and ran without help.
